Rainy Day
by Richie Angel
Summary: Well! It took me forever, but here it is! The PREQUEL to Rainbow [it happened before, not after] But, anyway, Ash and Gary are 14, and they are still enemys. Ash goes of the edge, when local girl, Loch Worthington falls for Gary, not for him. Ash then


Rainy Day  
By: Riche Angel [a.k.a Richie]  
Note: This is the prequel to "Rainbow" Chapters 1 & 2. I really recomend   
reading those   
first, It tells you the charecters... and that stuff. For those of you who   
DON'T know what a prequel is, it's a story that comes before another... but   
it is written after the 1st story. Normally, like in this one, the   
charecters are the same. This story is about a 12 year old girl named   
Loch. She's head of the youth division of cheerleading for Pallet, to spite  
the fact that she is also the youngest on the team. When she was younger,   
she was very interested in where the Pokemon trainers from her town were   
going, but she lost interest when she was about 9. Gary, Ash, and all the   
others are now 14. Suprisingly, at the end of the story, the thing that   
draws them apart brings them together... and so does Loch.  
Loch gracefully pulled up her hair, and looked at the form of her   
face. No wonder she was suceeding at cheerleader camp! She was average   
wheight, but it was spread out, so she looked not a pound over 95, she   
was tall, but not to tall. Loch knew that being full of herself was   
wrong... but what was the crime in knowing you're pretty? She wasn't   
braging about it at all! She still didn't see the crime in, very simply,   
knowing that she was pretty... But, there was more. She was athletic...   
one of the fittest girls in Pallet! Why shoudl she not want to be a   
cheerleader. She put her hair in a pony tail and slipped into her yellow   
and blue uniform. She placed the "Pallet" banner around her shoulder, and   
put the other end on her waist... just like the picture. She looked at the   
mirror once more, coming to the conclusion that she would cut her waist   
length hair soon, a knowk on the door was heard.  
"Who is it?" Loch said, putting a bit of lipstick on.  
"It's Miss Amy", her couch said, as Loch opened the door. "It's   
almost time to go out, how are you doing?"  
"Oh, I'm great!" she said happily, picking up her pom-poms.  
"Well, everyone has turned out for the football game!" Miss Amy   
said, fixing Loch's hair.  
"Really?" Loch said, turning to look in the mirror.  
"Yes... most of the boys are back from the Indigo Pokemon leage,   
so they are out there", she put a bit of hairspray on Loch's hair, then   
fixed her banner. She put her face next to Loch's. "Your my prised   
cheerleader, Loch, do well out there".  
"I will", Loch said, walking out the door, she joined the other   
girls.  
"Hi Loch!" said Nancy.  
"Wow Nancy, you look great!" Loch said. Nancy was the closet thing   
Loch had to a freind. No one wanted to be freinds with a pretty young, but   
incredibly poor girl.  
"So do you", Nancy put her arm around Loch. "I heard Ash Ketchum   
was back!"  
"Awh, Ash is nothing", Loch said, smiling.  
"But, you look at him anyway", Nancy whispered.  
"Cause I don't want to look any more like an outcast than I already   
am", she said back to Nancy. Nancy was 2 years older than Loch, the   
difference in height was very apparent.  
"Oh, yes, I remember, you follow Gary Oak's adventures", she said,   
getting in line behind Loch.  
"I use to, following the adventures of a Pokemon trainer got boring   
about 3 years ago, when they all came back from their 1st indigo   
competitions?" Loch said, getting ready to go out. "When they become 12,   
everything changes."   
"Yeah, that's true, but don't you think that their hott?" Nancy   
said, looking at her.  
"Not really, my incredibly tall freind", Loch said, putting her   
hand on Nancy's shoulder. "You must remember something else about me, I'm   
only 12".  
"Okay, before the game starts, let's intorduce our local Youth   
Cheerleader squad, the Pallet Stars!" the announcer said on the speaker,   
Miss Amy came down the hall.  
"Okay guys", she said, patting Loch on the back. "This is our big   
day."  
"Nancy Keller!" the annoucer shouted, Nancy ran out, "Cleo Napal!   
Tracy Kanley! Casaandra Almers!" they all ran out by their names.  
'I'm next' Loch thought.  
"And, please put your hands together for, the one, the only, captain   
of this very group, Loch Worthington!" Loch ran out, smiling and waving.   
She took the microphone from the annoncer.  
"Thank you everyone! We have quite a show cooked up for you today,   
but first, we would like to thank Proffessor Oak for sopnsering us!" claps   
filled the audience... but the glare on her face from the lights prevented   
her from seeing who was in the audience. They did their cheer. "Now,   
please welcome your home team, the Pallet Masters!" Loch said, then turned   
around. "One... two...three!" she shouted.  
The cheerleaders did a wave, strating from the inner field, and it   
went back to the enterance to the field. The football team came out, and   
the girls went to the sidelines. Loch was bored, just like she was at every   
ball game, weither they were rented out to cheer on an out-of-city team, or   
if they were on the road with the masters... every time she was bored. She   
watched the 1st quarter end, no touchdowns for the home team. They never   
did win. When intermission came, it was almost a god sent for the   
cheerleaders.  
"I think we should take matters into our own hands", Miss Amy said,   
sighing at the scoreboard.  
'I agree", Loch said. "We were ranked the best cheerleading squad   
in the state! We deserve better than this!"  
"But, it won't be the same cheering someone that isn't from Pallet   
on", Nancy said, taking an apple from the conciousion boy. She took a bit   
of it.  
"I don't care. I think we need a team as good as us", Loch took a   
water.  
"Excuse me", said the water boy, standing close to Loch. "I   
couldn't help over hearing your conversation, but have you considered   
doing traveling shows?"  
"Yo, water boy, why don't you go tell the couch of the team that   
we're quiting", Loch said, picking him up by his collar.  
"Loch, we can't do that in the middle of the game", Miss Amy said.  
"You're right", Loch sighed, "Am I speaking for everyone when I   
say that we are leaving after this game?"  
"I think so", Cleo said, shaking her head.  
"Well, okay..." Loch shurgged. "This was going to be our last   
preformance anyway..."  
"I almost forgot" Cassandra said, putting her pom-poms down.  
"We always have so much fun together" Tracy said, nodding her   
head at Cassandra.  
"Well, so it doesn't matter anyway", Loch said, shurgging.  
  
~*~*~  
Loch walked away from the small stadium. Today was the last day,   
that was it. Her, and everyone else on the team... it was the last time   
some of them would ever see each other.  
"Hey, Loch', Nancy said. "You aren't going to stay for the goodbye   
party?"  
"No... I hate long goodbyes', Loch said, smiling at her freind.  
"Well, I'm starting a real job, but, here's my phone number", she   
handed her a peice of paper.  
"Thanks Nancy", Loch took the peice of paper. "You know, your the   
closest thing I have ever had to a friend, thanks Nancy". Loch hugged her.  
"Are you sure you don't want to came in?" Nancy said.  
"On second thought, I will', Loch said, picking her bag up. The two  
strated inside.   
The boy's locker room was impressively decorated, a table of food   
sat in the center, the smell of sweat and B.O had been elliminated. Loch   
was glad to see the turn around.  
"Hi!", said one boy, he had black eyes, and his hair was either   
dark, dark brown, or black, she wasn't sure. "You must be Loch."  
"Yeah... and you are?" she asked.  
"I'm Ash", he said, smiling kindly.  
"Oh, so your the Poke Jock everyone has a crush on" Loch said,   
looking him up and down. "I stick with my opinion about them all".  
"Poke Jock?" Ash asked, as Loch walked away.  
"She has this thing against guys..." Nancy said to Ash, Loch's   
eyes drifted around the room.  
"Hey, Nancy, who's that boy in the corner?" Loch asked, pointing   
to him.  
"That's Professer Oak's grandson... uahhh, what's his name..."   
Nancy said, making a jesture with her hand.  
"Oh", Loch said, putting her drink down, "You mean Gary? He looks   
so different from the last time I saw him." She walked over to him.  
"Uh, um, geez", Ash said, rolling his eyes. "Why Gary of all   
people? She's the best female athelete in town, not to mention a looker",   
Ash looked more destressed. "How come everyone likes Gary so much? He's   
mean and arrogent, and rude... and... and"  
"Well, Ash, do I sense jealousy?" Nancy asked, tilting her head.  
"Nah", Ash looked at Loch as she talked to Gary.  
"I couldn't help but overhear your conversation", a sweet voice said  
behind them. It was May, Gary's older sister, "But why do you have a thing   
against my baby brother anyway?"  
"He's just so.... mean", Ash looked more destressed than ever.  
"Ash, you haven't meant the real Gary Oak", May said, sighing.   
"As long as he thinks that your in constant competition with him, he'll   
never be nice to you, that's just how he is".  
"So, I'm suppose to hang up my Pokeballs, put my cap up and call   
it quits, just because Gary won't ever be nice to me if I don't?" Ash,   
flung his hat in the air. "No, thanks, May, that's not how Ash Ketchum   
works, if he is never going to be nice to me the way I am, then he isn't   
worth trying to get as a friend."  
"I'm not suggesting that at all Ash!" May screamed, she walked   
out of the room, angry, and possibly hurt.  
  
~*~*~  
  
On his way out, he passed Gary and Loch, sitting on the bleachers.  
Loch was laughing, and Gary smiling... Ash looked up. Nancy was right...   
he was jealous of Gary... not because of the Pokemon... or his un-dying   
pride... but for his popularity. He chewed over May's words. Ash then   
realized... that Gary wasn't popular at all! He had no freinds, and this   
was the first time he had seen Gary with a girl outside of May, or one of   
his fans! Gary wasn't popular! Gary Wasn't Popular!!   
GARY WASN'T POPULAR!!! Ash couldn't stop saying it in his mind, it made   
him smile every time he thought of this poor, social reject, who had been   
mean to him since tha day they had met! Gary wasn't popular... so, why   
was he sitting on the bleachers with Loch...? Loch Worthington? One of   
those children who Ash had found cute, ever since she was little. If   
Gary wasn't popular... why had he gotten Loch in a position that he had   
never been able to. Gary wasn't popular! Not like Ash! Now Ash got madder. He turned around and saw the bleachers in the distance, Gary and Loch shilouted by the mountain sunset. Ash watched as the figures mushed into one. He wasn't sure if they were hugging, or if it was his eyes watering. He turned around. He wasn't going to cry... not now... Gary wouldn't make him cry! He wouldn't ever make him cry! Not now, not ever! He ran home and locked himself in his room.  
"It's not fair!" he screamed, over and over into his pillow. He   
threw his pillow across the room, then stripped the comforter of his bed.   
He heard a knock on his door  
"Ash, dear?" it was his mother, her kind voice now shredded with   
worry. "Are you okay?"  
Ash paused, he didn't know what to say. Was he okay? Was this one   
of those things that normal 14-year-old boys tell their mothers? "I... I   
don't know".  
"Do you want to talk about it?" her voice, still kind, and still as   
worried.  
"I... I don't know if you will understand" he said, gripping his   
pillow.  
"Oh, it's one of those things", his mother paused. "I could try   
to understand ,Ash".  
He looked out his window, he could here Mr. Mime sweeping the   
hallway, singing a song. A slow rain strated as the sun desended lower.   
A rainbow showed lightly in the distance. He got up and un-locked his door,   
his mother stood there, clothes basket in hand, an extremly scared look was   
implanted on her face. She put the basket down and strocked his hair. She   
forced a smile. They both silently went out to the living room. His mother   
sat down on the couch. Ash stood for a few moments, pacing back and forth,   
then sat down.  
"It about Gary... or..or.. It's about Loch, or, or, or,it's about   
me and Loch, or, I mean, Loch and Gary." he stuterred on every word.  
"Hold on Ash, breath in and out, start from the beggining, go to   
the end, then I'll tell you what I think." she put her hands lovingly on   
his shoulders. "You can tell me anything ".  
"Even if it's about sex?" Ash asked.  
  
"Yes... even... sex.... umm, is that what this is about... Ash?"   
she asked, looking worried, "Should I be calling Professor Oak and tell   
him his grandson is doing something he isn't suppose to be doing?"  
"No, it's not about sex", Ash said, almost laughing at his mothers   
sudden up-tightness. "Or, at least not yet."  
"Not yet, oh dear", his mother looked out the window at Proffessor   
Oaks labortory. "Prehaps I should call him... ummm....."  
"No, mom, just listen, please?" he said, gripping his mother's hand.  
"Okay, Ash, I'm all ears", she sat down again, and looked at him.  
"It all started when I was introducing myself to Loch..." he   
strated.  
"She didn't recongnize you?" his mother asked, tilting her head.   
"You helped me babysit her when she was little, remeber?"  
"Yes, I remember, but she didn't", he said.  
"Go on".  
"Well, so she said to me 'Oh, your the Poke Jock everyone has   
a crush on', then asked who Gary was, and she walked over to him. They   
spent the rest of the party together, until they left together... and"  
"Oh, dear", his mother said.  
"No, mom, they went to talk on the bleachers".  
"Oh!" his mother said.  
"I heard then laughing when I passed them to go home. And, I   
remembered something that May told me, and relized that Gary wasn't   
popular.... so... how come Loch likes him... and not... me?"  
His mother paused, she got up and looked out the window. Ash   
heard her sigh. "I'm sorry, Ash, but I can't take your side on this   
one", she said, turning around. "I thought that you would be having   
this same conversation with me as the unpopular kid... how do you think   
Gary feels when he sees girls all over you, giggling and such. How do   
you think when that one girl he likes likes you?"  
Ash paused. His mother was right. At school, girls were always   
all over him. Can we see your Pokemon Ash?... Will you tell us about   
Viridian city Ash?... What does the Indigo Stadium look like Ash?...  
"No one is going to look any more down on you because Gary has   
Loch". Ash nodded, and went to stand next to his mother. He looked out   
the window with her, he saw Loch and Gary in the distance, they must have   
been walking by... that's what his mom had been looking at... he had to   
admit... he had never see Gary so happy... or seen him be so gentle. He saw   
them stop, Loch looked at Gary spectecally. Ash dashed out the front door.   
Maybe... just maybe... they could salvage a freindship. He ran down the   
street. He saw Loch smile, and look sympathetic.  
"It's okay!" she said perkily, "It's not like I'm gonna die without   
you". She turned around and walked the other way. She waved to Ash.  
Gary watched her leave, he looked a bit upset, so did Loch when her   
face wasn't facing Gary's. Ash couoldn't belive it... Gary had turned Loch   
down? Loch made a move on Gary... not the other way around?  
"Hey Ash", Gary said, sighing.  
"So... what just happened here?" Ash watched her leave.  
Gary's face suddenly changed expressions. "I.. mean... ummm, Why   
would I tell you?" he took on his normal snotiness. He sighed and sat   
down on a bench. "I'm to tired to be mean to you".  
"Everything in your life changes prospectives when you realize   
someone outside of your family cares about you, huh?" Ash said, sitting   
down next to him.  
Gary looked at the street. "Yeah..." he kicked a rock accross   
the street. "So, we're on the same page now?"  
Ash didn't catch his meaning, but he understood it was an act of   
freindship. An act of freindship from the one boy in town who needed it   
the most... an act of freindship from someone who Ash no longer had a   
gurge aginst.   
  
To Ash, it almost seemed like that light rain washed away all their   
differences, and not just that day... but for forever. Forever... that's   
like how it feels when your waiting for your best freind to call... only   
longer... forever. 


End file.
